At Whitehall Park School our home reading books are banded into different ability levels. Please take a look at this handy chart so you can see the progression of the book band levels. Please note that book banding is not an exact science and sometimes within a level there is a wide range of difference between the difficulty level of the texts. The chart can only give a rough idea of the right level for your child as there is always a wide range of reading abilities within any school year.
The teaching staff will support your child with selecting an appropriate level of book to read at home, but if you have any concerns or questions, please do leave them a note in your child’s Reading Record. As a rough guide, children should be able to read at least 90% of the words on the page without any problem. If the book is too easy, children can become bored. If it’s too difficult, they can become frustrated, and may have to concentrate so hard on reading the words that they lose the enjoyment of understanding the story.
Click here for information about Read Write Inc Phonics
Click here for information about reading in the Pink reading band
Click here for information about reading in the Red reading band
Click here for information about reading in the Yellow reading band
Click here for information about reading in the Green reading band
Click here for information about reading in the Blue reading band
Click here for information about reading in the Orange reading band
Click here for information about reading in the Turquiose reading band
Click here for information about reading in the Purple reading band
Pink and Red Book Bands
Your child is starting to read and enjoy sharing books. The following guidance is designed to help you support your child with reading at home. The suggestions are not designed to be used every time you read with your child, but to give you an idea of what skills your child needs to develop within these book bands.
Phonic and other Reading Strategies
Your child should be encouraged to use their phonic skills (sounding out and blending the sounds) as the main approach for reading. In the texts your child will be bringing home you may come across ‘Tricky Words’.
These are keywords which are not easy to sound out, and therefore need to be learnt as sight vocabulary:
the to I no go into
he she me we be was you they all are my her
Your child may
- Be able to blend together simple CVC words (consonant, vowel, consonant e.g. cat, hen, pin).
- Begin to learn and use the 42 units of sound that are used in the English language.
- Recognise some tricky words by
Yellow, Green and Blue Book Bands
Your child is starting to become more fluent and is gaining confidence when reading books. The following guidance is designed to help you support your child with reading at home. The suggestions are not designed to be used every time you read with your child, but to give you an idea of what skills your child needs to develop within these book bands.
Phonic and other Reading Strategies
Your child should be encouraged to use their phonic skills (sounding out and blending the sounds) as the main approach for reading. In the texts your child will be bringing home you may come across ‘Tricky Words’.
These are keywords which are not easy to sound out, and therefore need to be learnt as sight vocabulary:
the to I no go into he she me we be was you they all are my her said have like so do some come were there little one when out what why their people Mr
Mrs called asked could would looked
Your child may now
- Be able to blend more complex words such as CVCC (consonant, vowel, consonant, consonant e.g. mend, lost).
- Be able to blend more complex words such as CCVC (consonant, consonant, vowel, consonant e.g. drum, pram).
- Have some experience in reading 2 syllable words (e.g. picnic, bedroom).
- Use the 42 units of sound to read and write
- Recognise a greater number of tricky words by
Book Skills and Response to Books
You can also help your child by encouraging them to
- Take more notice of
- Have a go at unknown words using their phonic knowledge, picture clues and the meaning of the story to help
- Start to add
- Discuss the characters and plot more fully (for example, describe a character or express an opinion about a book).
- Answer questions about the book to show that they have understood what they are
Orange, Turquoise and Purple Book Bands
Your child is now beginning to read more confidently, and can manage books with longer text and more complex sentence structures. The following guidance is designed to help you support your child with reading at home. The following guidance is designed to help you support your child with reading at home. The suggestions are not designed to be used every time you read with your child, but to give you an idea of what skills your child needs to develop within these book bands.
Phonic and other Reading Strategies
Your child should still be encouraged to use their phonic skills (sounding out and blending the sounds) as the main approach for reading, where appropriate.
However, when tackling unfamiliar words, they should be beginning to use other strategies to help them.
They will probably need prompting to help them use an appropriate strategy. They may:
- Use their knowledge of familiar letters patterns (for example ‘-ing’, ‘-ed’).
- Notice words within a word (for example, read became by reading ‘be’ and ‘came’).
- Read ahead to be able to make a sensible guess within the context of the
- Re-read a sentence to self-correct if it doesn’t make
Your child should also be able to read a range of frequently occurring tricky words. These are keywords which are not easy to sound out, and therefore need to be learnt as sight vocabulary.
Book Skills and Response to Books
You can also help your child by encouraging them to
- Use punctuation to help them read more
- Re-read a section, to improve
- Use expression when they can (for example, changing their voice for speech).
- Read quietly on their own sometimes, before reading
- Retell the events in a story in sequence, after they have read it
- Predict what they think will happen next in a story, giving their
- Offer opinions about why characters behave in a certain
- Read a variety of book types, including nonfiction and
- Answer questions about what they have read, looking back to find the answers if necessary.
